The spokesperson for House Minority Leader Vic Miller has filed for the House seat that he’s leaving to run for the state Senate.
Alexis Simmons has filed to run for the House District 58 seat that Miller has represented a couple of times, most recently since 2021.
Simmons, whose great uncle is former Kansas Attorney General Bob Stephan, joined the House Democratic staff in 2021 when she was hired by former Minority Leader Tom Sawyer as communications director.
She remained in that position when Miller became minority leader last year.
Simmons is a graduate of Washburn University where she served as student body president and majored in political science.
After graduating from Washburn, she earned a master’s in American politics and government from American University’s School of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.
She worked as a graduate research assistant for the Women & Politics Institute at American University.
She also served as a field representative for the Progressive Turnout Project, a Chicago-based group that bills itself as the largest voter contact organization in the country with a mission of getting Democrats to vote.
She also was an Emily’s List Ignite Change Fellow, an eight-week virtual initiative to train community leaders and advocates on developing their political skills and confidence in potentially running for office.
Simmons is an adjunct professor in the political science department at Washburn, a graduate of the 2021-2022 Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s Emerging Leaders program and Democratic precinct committeewoman.
House District 58 leans heavily Democratic.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly won 68% of the vote in this district in the 2022 governor’s race, while Republican Derek Schmidt won 29% of the vote here.
